Google Is Cutting the Cord on Its Fiber Rollout

Laying off workers and putting expansion plans on ice, Google Fiber looks to be headed for a wireless future.

The rumors surrounding Google’s plan to provide fiber Internet in several U.S. cities were true: the company is putting expansion of the plan on ice, cutting jobs and losing its chief executive in the process.

Barratt said the company hopes to continue its roll-out of Internet provision once it has “advanced [its] technologies and solutions.”

What does that mean? Likely that the future of Google Fiber lies in, well, a lack of fiber. Rather than installing cables, which is wildly expensive, Google looks set to join other companies in rolling out super-fast Wi-Fi around cities instead. It’s already signaled its intent by purchasing the company Webpass, which uses wireless technology to provide homes with gigabit Internet access.

The idea makes sense. Advances in microelectronics and software have made high-capacity wireless systems far more affordable in recent years. The result is a zippy new wireless data technology known as WiGig, which sends data 10 times faster than a standard Wi-Fi connection by using 60-gigahertz radio waves.

Jamie CondliffeI’m the editor of news and commentary for MIT Technology Review. I put together our daily e-mail newsletter, The Download, from my base in London before everyone in the U.S. manages to wake up. I previously worked at New Scientist and Gizmodo, and I hold a PhD in engineering science from Oxford University.